


Useful Pasta and Men

by anarchycox



Series: The Executive and the Sandwich Man [2]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Arthur and Merlin Brotp, Banter, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff, Happy Relationships, M/M, Supportive Relationships, and a bit of a human one, arthur and gwaine are stupid in love, arthur is an emotional disaster, arthur wants to be helpful, he is awful at it, true love is eating bad cooking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:29:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28364694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anarchycox/pseuds/anarchycox
Summary: Gwaine has been working night and day setting up the new kitchen for his business, and Arthur wants him to be able to chill for a night. He decides to cook for his professional chef boyfriend. It is pasta how hard can it be?Arthur just wants to help his boyfriend, and learns that all he needs to do to be loved is to be there.You don't have to have read the first in the series to understand this one shot.
Relationships: Gwaine/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Series: The Executive and the Sandwich Man [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2076213
Comments: 14
Kudos: 60





	Useful Pasta and Men

Arthur woke up before Gwaine, which wasn’t a surprise, the man hadn’t gotten in until well after midnight. There were dark circles under his eyes, and he was pale from all the work he had been doing. Arthur had offered to hire contractors, but Gwaine and Percival had glared at him until he apologized. They were moving kitchens, a space they had bought, not renting anymore, which was fantastic. But they had chosen a place that needed a bunch of upgrades to suit their work. And since they both had done summer jobs in construction they were doing most of it themselves to save money.

But that meant a lot of late nights for them, and the few friends they had roped into helping.

Arthur offered to help. He could wield a hammer. Probably. It didn’t seem that hard, for fucks sake Merlin had managed, he should be able to. Hell, Morgana was helping them and she knew very little about construction. But she knew how to scare people and a wood shipment that had been fucked up, was fixed very quickly and a great deal of a store discount occurred. Gwaine had set up a little shrine with a black haired doll he found and lit a candle in front of it. Morgana loved it, and was all smug about how helpful she was (never mind that Gwen was there using the thing that looked really cool with a whirring blade and Percival had bodily picked him up so he wouldn’t go near it). Call a wrench pliers one time, and you get barred from anything more than coffee delivery. He had been joking (he hadn’t been joking). So he did coffee runs and watched youtube videos on massage to rub Gwaine’s shoulders on the nights he spent over.

He had also watched a lot of porn to improve his blow job skills. The man was working crazy hard and deserved good blow jobs. He had realized though that porn sort of terrified him, and he had to ask Merlin’s advice. Which turned out to be far more terrifying and he would never watch Merlin eat another banana again. He had also sent a you are a lucky bastard bottle of whisky to Lancelot. And gone through a great deal of bananas at home away from eyes. His doctor would be thrilled with his potassium levels. But more importantly, Gwaine was very appreciative of the skills. He often fell asleep right after and Arthur had a quick wank in the bathroom, but he didn’t mind. When he went to bed, Gwaine in his sleep curled around Arthur, held him close. 

The usually drifted apart as they slept which is why when he woke up he saw Gwaine’s face instead of his wall. The man looked wrecked, and Arthur hated it. He wanted to make it better, and he couldn’t. Give him a multi million dollar business deal and he would have it done by lunch; understanding the difference between the sinks they were putting in the kitchen, not so much. All he wanted was to see the tension leave his boyfriend’s shoulders, even for just a few hours.

Gwaine’s lips were cracked, scabbed over a bit. He had a habit of biting them when doing hard work. Arthur drifted his thumb lightly over those marks. He moved Gwaine’s hair away from his cheek. He kissed Gwaine’s forehead and got up. He watched the news while he worked out in his home gym, made note of a couple things he wanted Merlin to look into. He went to the kitchen made himself a breakfast smoothie, the extent of his cooking, and put on coffee for Gwaine. He hadn’t owned a coffee pot before Gwaine, he hated the sludge, a good kale shake with a few supplements was all he needed in the morning, but Gwaine’s look of horror at no coffee the first time he had stayed over had Arthur calling Merlin begging him to get coffee to the house quickly before Arthur was dumped.

He had distracted Gwaine with shower sex and when they went to the kitchen there was coffee sitting on the counter, a new coffee machine had been in place on his counter.

“You have coffee magic?” Gwaine had teased.

“No that is me,” Merlin had walked by texting, and Arthur had moved behind the counter quickly to hide his nudity. Gwaine hadn’t cared, too busy guzzling the coffee. “You owe me three hundred quid for that coffee machine, Arthur.”

“Three hundred quid, are there elves living in it?” Arthur had rounded the corner to yell at Merlin for spending that much on a machine that was only there for Gwaine’s use.

“Still naked, still weird thighs.” Arthur had grabbed a place mat from the counter and held it in front of himself, ready to yell.

“I like his thighs, Merls. Quite fit, wrap around my hips well. Good for thrust.”

Merlin had paled which was impressive considering how pale he was already. “Never use the word thrust to refer to Arthur again, I beg you.”

Gwaine leaned against the counter, drinking the second cup of coffee that had been there, completely comfortable in his nudity. “Thrust,” he purred.

“Goodbye, Merlin,” Arthur had said.

“Goodbye,” Merlin had agreed. At the door he had paused. “By the way you’ll want to change the combination on your safe, too easy to figure out. I took five hundred.”

“You said it cost three hundred!”

“I saw your dick, that is worth two hundred hazard pay,” Merlin had said and slipped out the door. 

The beep startled Arthur from the memories and he realized the coffee was done. He poured a cup and it poured rather slowly. Was coffee supposed to be that…thick and grainy? He would stick to his morning shakes. Arthur took the cup to the shower and put it on the ledge in there, got the water going nice and hot. In the bedroom, Gwaine had pulled the covers up so much that he couldn’t see the man’s head, only his long feet. Arthur cupped an ankle, squeezed it. “Gwaine, you need to wake up.” He wished he could let the man sleep but he had promised to wake him at six so he could go to the old kitchen to prep food. There was a grumble from under the covers and Arthur lightly tickled his calf, a thing sure to get Gwaine up. “Shower is hot, coffee is in there already. Up you get.”

“A couple months ago, you mentioned I could be your kept man,” Gwaine said from below the duvet. “Why’d I turn it down?”

“Because you love your job? And would be bored as a kept man? That was what you said. But the offer is always on the table.” Arthur hated to do it, but Gwaine had said he had to be awake, so Arthur yanked the duvet away ruthlessly. “Up. Shower. Coffee in there.”

“Fucking hell, princess!” Gwaine shouted and whined at the loss of the blanket. “Mean!”

“You told me to be mean.”

“Who ever listens to me?”

“I do,” Arthur said. “Now go.”

“Fine.” Gwaine rolled off the bed, furrowed brow eyes barely open, but as he went by Arthur there was a kiss to his temple. “You are sexy when you are mean. We should play with that more.”

“Sure, you get more than four hours sleep in a night, and we will talk about me being mean to you.” Arthur nudged him towards the bathroom and went to his home office to get a bit of work in before he got real work in. He okayed the budget increase Mithian wanted, ignored the emails from his father, yelling about their charitable increases in the last year. He sent several messages to Merlin, and it seemed he had set an autoreply that was ‘fuck you not until 8:30’. Arthur hadn’t known you could set autoreply to text message. But then there was a video incoming from Merlin, and he clicked the little icon.

“Merlin!” he shouted and quickly hung up. Well, perhaps it hadn’t been an autoreply. But really if the man was engaged in sexual relations, there was no reason to respond at all to Arthur’s messages. Arthur did a bit more work and looked into a few personal projects he was thinking of investing in. He heard a throat clear at the door and looked over. Gwaine was wearing the vest with the hole in the neck seam. He had threatened to throw that shirt out and Arthur had pinned him to the bed, tortured a promise to keep it forever out of Gwaine. “What’s on your docket today?” Arthur asked.

“Light day, we need silicone to set, and a couple orders to come in so it is just the daily work at the old shop. Can actually take it easy tonight. Actually stay awake long enough to see my gorgeous boyfriend. Cook him dinner watch a movie. I have counted you know, I owe you about 15 blow jobs.”

“I think I would pass out if you try that many in one night.” Arthur smiled, “But one or two.”

“Let’s aim for three,” Gwaine grinned. “What do you want me to cook for you tonight? I’ll pick up whatever on way over here.”

Arthur frowned a bit, as he looked at those circles under Gwaine’s eyes. “I’ll cook for you tonight,” he blurted out. 

“I’m sorry? Arthur you don’t cook,” Gwaine looked shocked, but to be fair, it was only years of emotional trauma and fear from his father that had Arthur’s face staying neutral. Which lord, apparently he would have to unpack that particular thought in therapy. Therapy being the foozball he and Merlin played on lunch break. Merlin had to use that masters in psychology for something. 

“I can too,” Arthur replied. “I have lived alone for years, Gwaine. I might not be up to your levels, but I can cook pasta and sauce.” He was sure he could. If he tried. It was pasta and sauce, the bag and jar would have instructions. “Even heat up garlic bread in the oven.” He flushed a little at the soft look Gwaine gave him. “If you wanted.”

“I would love that,” Gwaine said. “Be by around seven?”

“Perfect,” Arthur agreed. “Have a good day. If you are bored, feel free to send me a tasteful dick pic.”

“Will do,” Gwaine came over and kissed him. “See you later, love.”

“Oh, was the coffee alright? It looked a bit odd to me.”

“It was perfect,” Gwaine swore. 

Arthur was pleased, he was getting the hang of that coffee machine. He packed up and left with Gwaine heading into the office. Merlin was in about forty five minutes later and Arthur gave him his most displeased look. “That was on purpose.”

“What was?” Merlin blinked innocently. 

“I found a building I want to buy,” Arthur said.

“Another one?”

“It is a community center,” Arthur flushed a bit. “It could use some help.”

“You are increasingly becoming less of a prat. I am so proud of you.” Merlin wiped away a fake tear. “Next you’ll adopt an orphan.”

“Dear god, I have you, that is child enough.” Arthur did not care for the thought of children. “Once I buy this, we’re going to put Morgana in charge of it.”

“You want…Morgana in charge of a community center? Don’t those have, people and community at them?”

“It is a women and children’s shelter,” Arthur said. “It feels. She could use a project, she is floundering since she and Gwen came back from their trip. It could be good for her, since she doesn’t want to come back the company proper.” Gwen had settled back into HR, but Morgana just couldn’t be a part of anything that had the imprint of Uther on it. Arthur could understand that, but he wouldn’t see his sister flounder. 

“There are worse ideas than that.” Merlin was giving his I am proud of you smile, that always freaked Arthur out. Probably because he wasn’t used to people being proud of him. They got to work and at lunch, Percival was the one to bring their sandwiches.

“Hear you are cooking dinner for Gwaine. He is really excited,” Percival said. “Not really used to people taking care of him. But you do. That is nice, he deserves it.” 

It was honestly the most sentences that Arthur had Percival string together. He was always impressed with how soft Percival’s voice was. The huge hand passed him the sandwich. “Thanks,” Arthur said.

“Sure. We’re doing a big push this weekend at the new shop. You’ll be available to do coffee runs?”

“I can help more than that,” Arthur insisted.

“Good lord, no you cannot,” Merlin said. He popped the lid on his soup. “Thanks, Percy. Hey, how’s it going with that guy who made the work island?”

“Elyan said we could maybe go out once the project was all done.”

“Elyan? Gwen’s brother?” Arthur smiled at that. They would be adorable together. “Nice.”

Percival was blushing a bit. He hurried away without another word. Arthur and Merlin ate in companionable silence until Merlin stopped, spoon halfway to his mouth. “Wait, did Percival say you were cooking for Gwaine?”

“Yes,” Arthur finished his food. “So, about the Greyson report, Leon says -”

“You. Cooking.”

“I can cook, Merlin,” Arthur sighed. “Are you going to make this a thing?”

“It isn’t a thing, it is fact. You can’t cook.”

“I can’t cook a lot,” Arthur agreed, “But I can cook pasta.”

“Can you?” Merlin was squinting at him. “Can you?”

“It is pasta, you open the bag, boil it for what ten or twenty minutes, dump a jar of sauce on top, put a couple slices of that garlic toast in the toaster oven and boom, nice dinner.”

“I…twenty minutes?”

“Yes?” Arthur looked at Merlin. “Isn’t that right?” Merlin shook his head no. “Oh.” Arthur typed easy pasta recipes into DuckDuckGo, and wondered why it was DuckDuckGo. “What happened to Google?”

“They mine your data, this is better.”

“I don’t like it.”

“You don’t like change. Stick with it.”

“No, I want google back.”

“They are evil!”

“I run a company worth three hundred million dollars, Merlin, I am evil too,” Arthur pointed out.

“I am working on that!” Merlin glared at him. “With things like getting you to change your search engine.”

“It is shit.”

“Fine,” Merlin huffed and came over and switched him to firefox. “Try this one.”

“I don’t hate it.”

“Baby steps in destroying capitalist empires, baby steps Merlin.” The man was giving him a look of incredible disappoint, but Arthur was used to that look and could easily ignore it. 

“Tell me you actually like DuckDuckGo,” Arthur challenged. He smirked when Merlin was quiet. “It is shit. You were trying to foist shit on me, just because you could.”

“Focusing on pasta. Let’s keep it easy. Fresh pasta from the market and Carbonara. It has like five ingredients.” Merlin typed a bit and the printer whirred in the corner. He went and grabbed the sheets brought them over. “I think you could handle this.”

Arthur read the instructions and frowned, “Does it taste super eggy? I hate eggs.” 

“No, the cheese and bacon are what you taste the most the egg coats the noodles, tastes creamy more than anything.” Merlin looked at the recipe. “It is really simple, but also I don’t quite trust you. I will ordered everything to be ready for you to pick up on your way home from work. What time are you feeding him?”

“He’ll be over at seven.”

“So you want it for right away?”

“I think so?” 

“Means you’ll want to be settled into your kitchen about half past six,” Merlin explained. “Or, really. How about I send Lancelot in, he can cook and you pretend you did it?”

“That defeats the purpose,” Arthur glared at Merlin. “You just said I could handle this.”

“I was lying. You have a lot of emotional trauma tied to a lack of familial support, and I didn’t want to bring that up for you when you are trying to be a good man. Lancelot will come over, and then hide in a closet.”

Arthur snickered a little bit, “Putting your boyfriend back in the closet are you?”

Merlin snorted. “He’ll be over at -”

“No, you can order me the pick up at the grocery store, but that is it. I am tired of not being able to help my boyfriend. I get that I don’t have a lot of the life experiences that everyone else does, but Morgana gets to help, she was raised next to me! Why don’t I get to help?” Arthur was actually quite upset about this, he realized. “I just want to make it a little bit easier for Gwaine. He deserves that.”

Merlin kissed the top of his head, and Arthur relaxed a bit. “You can do this. It is really hard to fuck up carbonara.”

“Thank you, Merlin. Now let’s get back to work.”

They worked until Merlin kicked him out, so he’d have time to chill between grocery pick up and cooking. At the shop he was handed several bags that were heavy. “This is a bit much?”

“The man who called in the order doubted if you had a dutch oven,” she explained.

“I don’t think so, and I thought this was a stove top meal? My oven might be Japanese, I would have to check.”

“Oh dear,” she whispered, “everything you need to cook carbonara is in there. It isn’t a hard recipe.” She looked hesitant. “Cooking for yourself?”

“No, my boyfriend, the chef and owner behind The Green Grocer?” Arthur was happy to pause and brag about his boyfriend. “It is a catering company that -”

“I read the article in the Guardian,” she interrupted. “And you are cooking for him. And don’t know what a dutch oven is.”

“Yes? I was assured this isn’t a hard recipe, five ingredients or so.”

“Yes, but,” she pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket. “Here my number. Call when you are cooking, and I can walk you through it.”

He wondered if she was hitting on him. Seemed a bit rude when he had just said boyfriend. Still he didn’t have to be rude in return. “Thank you, I can manage.” He gathered the bags and left. At home he changed from his suit to trackies and a vest that actually might have been Gwaine’s. Smelled like him. Arthur liked that. He put the recipe carefully on the counter, and pulled a beer from the fridge. He read it and looked at the ingredients. It seemed logical to prep everything out before hand, so he cut up the meat and beat the eggs, grated the cheese. He couldn’t get the lid off the small container of kosher rock salt. It just would not come off, but salt was salt so he dug into his cupboards and found the thing of table salt and measured out the three tablespoons for the boiling water. Seemed a bit excessive but the recipe called for it and he would trust the chefs who wrote it.

It was six thirty which was when Merlin told him to start. He put on some music, Led Zepplin because his father was an awful and repulsive human being but had hooked Arthur on classic rock, the only good thing the man had given him - well that and the company but still, personal wise decent music taste was it. He set the water to boil and began to fry up the chunks of fancy bacon. It cooked differently than those ready crisp strips. Was taking longer than he expected. But Merlin had said he had enough time. Merlin wouldn’t fuck him over on this. When the water was boiling he added the salt, which slowed the boil a bit, but it would come back up. He pulled the meat and read the recipe again. It was actually going fairly well. He paused to go nuts on the drum solo and the water boiled over. 

“Shit,” he cursed, as he realized how much water was lost. He quickly added more and another tablespoon of salt, he knew enough to not add the full three and was quite proud of himself for knowing that. He put the pasta in and the package said it was fresh so it would only need 7 minutes and the recipe said pull it 2 minutes before that so he set the timer for 5 minutes. He beat the eggs again, and heard the door. “Do not come into the kitchen,” he shouted. “Dinner in 10!”

“I’ll just change and be at the dining table then,” Gwaine called. “I brought a bottle of red?”

“Does that go with carbonara?”

“Not the one I brought.”

“I have beer.” Arthur’s phone beeped and he moved the pasta about. “Really? It wants the pasta water, weird,” but he followed the directions. He then just dumped the egg over the pasta and the smell made him frown. He would have a sandwich later he decided. It was simply too eggy. But Gwaine loved eggs, so that would be good. He followed the last few steps and it didn’t actually look awful. He popped a bit of the meat in his mouth, and bloody hell that was yummy. He put some on the plate and added a little fresh grated cheese and black pepper on top. Okay, it didn’t look like telly food, or photo in a magazine but it didn’t actually look like shit. 

What was everyone worried about? He took the plate to the dining room. “Right, beer, sorry.” Arthur put it in front of Gwaine, and jogged back to the kitchen to grab the man a beer. He even put it in a nice glass. “Here you go.”

“You aren’t eating?” 

“Too eggy,” Arthur said. 

“I thought it might be. Why’d you go with it?” Gwaine was smiling at him. 

“Because it is a pretty easy recipe,” Arthur admitted. 

“It is a fairly simple one, and it looks good. I really appreciate you doing this, babe,” Gwaine was giving him that soft smile. The one that made Arthur feel more than he ever thought he would.

“Go on, eat. Has to be nice to eat something you didn’t cook.” Arthur was eager to see Gwaine eat it. He watched the man twirl a bit on his fork, and he held his breath as Gwaine brought it to his mouth. The man chewed and swallowed, took a sip of beer. But he didn’t flinch or spit it out. “Good?”

“Very,” Gwaine replied. “Well done, princess.”

Arthur flushed, beyond thrilled. He had done it, he had been helpful to his boyfriend. He watched Gwaine eat, taking a large sip of the beer after each mouthful, but the man had been stressed and clearly had decided that tonight was his night to chill a bit. When the glass was drained but the plate still half full, Arthur stood up, “Another beer?” 

“Please,” Gwaine said. 

Arthur took the glass and went to the kitchen. There was plenty of pasta still in the pot. And yes he didn’t like egg, but still, he had impressed Gwaine and wanted to try it. He grabbed a fork and brought some to his mouth. The minute he took a bite though he began to choke. He spit it out into the sink and found himself bent over coughing. He felt a hand pound on his back.

“Arthur, babe, what is wrong? Are you okay?” 

Arthur straightened up and saw the panic on Gwaine’s face. “That is inedible.” He poured himself a glass of water. “Oh god, that is shite.”

“It has egg, you didn’t eat any,” Gwaine’s face was filled with horror. “Tell me you didn’t try it.”

Arthur nodded, “that was disgusting but it wasn’t just the egg. What did I do wrong? I followed the recipe and I don’t think I’ll ever taste anything again.”

“Let me see the recipe.” Arthur gestured to the counter and Gwaine picked up the sheets Merlin had printed off. Arthur needed more water. “This should be fine. Tell me what you did, walk me through the steps.”

Arthur coughed a bit more. “I did everything the recipe said,” he felt sick and not just from the disgusting food, “but I couldn’t open the salt that Merlin had bought. And salt is salt right?” 

“It isn’t,” Gwaine said. “You kept equal measurements?”

Arthur nodded, “and the water boiled over so when I refilled the pot I added another tablespoon. Guessing that was wrong?” Gwaine winced. “Really wrong, huh? I should have hidden Lancelot in my closet.”

“I don’t understand that one,” Gwaine admitted. “Table salt is different than what the recipe calls for. Using that you should cut at least by half.”

“Oh,” Arthur stared at the dutch oven that held all the leftover pasta. He hugged himself a bit. “I just wanted you to feel good, relax.” Then he wasn’t hugging himself, Gwaine was hugging him. “You were eating it though. It was disgusting and you were eating it.”

“Of course I was,” Gwaine was holding him so tightly swaying a bit. “Arthur, you went out of your way to try to make me feel good. This was so outside your skill set. But you wanted to do that for me. Not many people have give a fuck for me, like you do.”

“Lots of people give a fuck about you.”

“Not the way you do.” Gwaine kissed him. “I would have eaten a foot if you put in front of me. Overly salted pasta is not so big a deal.” There was another kiss. “I love you.”

Arthur laughed a bit at that. “You really must if you actually ate that.” He leaned into Gwaine. “Order some pizza?” The buzzer rang and Arthur frowned. He went to the door. “Yes?”

“A food delivery has arrived for your sir,” the doorman said. 

Merlin. He was going to both kill the man for doubting him, and give him a raise for being aware enough to know Arthur would fuck it up. “Send it up.”

It was Thai which worked just as well as pizza, and they ate in front of the telly with a few beers and then cuddled. That night, Gwaine was with it enough for them to have really spectacular sex, and he wasn’t as pale. In the morning, the circles were a bit less deep under the man’s eyes. Arthur went and worked out, made his shake and made Gwaine’s coffee. He brought to the shower like he did and woke Gwaine up with a kiss. “Shower and coffee are ready for you.” The coffee had looked weird again and Arthur thought about the pasta. “Gwaine, tell the truth about the coffee I make.”

Gwaine wasn’t fully awake yet, “Oh no, has dumping it down the drain clogged it? I have a snake at my flat, we can fix this.”

“I make bad coffee?”

Gwaine fully woke up, and kissed him. “No, what? It is fine.”

“Lord, that bad?” Arthur looked at him. Gwaine had been dealing with shit coffee, just because Arthur made it for him. He didn’t yell, or lecture, or say a fucking thing. He just dealt with it because his boyfriend made it for him. “Move in,” Arthur blurted out. 

“Huh?”

“Move in,” Arthur pleaded. “Because you love me.”

“I do,” Gwaine said. He was still a little bleary. “Sure?”

Arthur smiled, “I’ll remind you when you are properly awake.” He went to his home office and sent messages to Merlin and got rather appalling messages back. He settled into the reports he needed to read.

“Did you ask me to move in? Because I drink your shitty coffee?”

“Yes,” Arthur looked up at Gwaine. “And because I love you.”

“I’ll give notice at my place,” Gwaine came over and kissed him. “Do you want to help at the new shop this weekend?”

Arthur nodded, “Percival already asked me if I would do the coffee runs.”

“You could help paint, if you wanted.”

Fuck, Gwaine loved and trust him far more than Arthur deserved. “I want.” 

“See you later, princess.” There was another kiss and he was gone.

Arthur immediately started to research how you paint a wall, because he hadn’t done it before. On his lunch break, he went to a hardware store and grilled the paint counter on what to do. That weekend at the new kitchen, Arthur did not fuck up painting a wall, well he did, he had used the wrong colour because no one told him they were going for an accent wall colour, but the paint job itself was great, and Gwaine said they would just change which wall was the accent colour. 

Gwaine sat on the counter behind Arthur, who was between his legs. “It is a great paint job,” Gwaine kissed his head. “Well done.”

Arthur leaned back against him. “I just want to help you.”

“I know,” Gwaine said and squeezed him tight. “But you help just by being my boyfriend, you know that right? That you being there, makes me happy, and that helps.”

“I’m not used to that,” Arthur tilted his head to look at Gwaine. “I’m useful because I’m rich and -”

“You don’t have to be useful, I don’t care about your money. I care about your kind eyes and tight arse, and slightly disproportionate thighs. I just care about you.” 

Arthur turned so he could properly look at Gwaine. “I just care about you too.”

They smiled at each other, and Gwaine was leaning down to kiss him.

“Ugh, must I see this?” Morgana said.

“Yes,” Arthur replied. “I saw your ass on Gwen’s insta, you can see me kissing my partner.”

“Ooooh, moved it up from boyfriend to partner. Fancy,” Merlin said. 

“Shut up, the lot of you,” Arthur went up on his tiptoes to meet Gwaine’s kiss. “Now that I painted a wall, can I use a hammer?”

“No,” everyone else in the room said with very levels of panic.

Gwaine was smiling though, “Of course you can.”

Arthur kissed his neck. “I’ll go on a coffee run.” He didn’t need to use a hammer, the knowledge that Gwaine would trust him to was enough. He slipped out of Gwaine’s hold and headed to the coffee shop and brought back the order to the new kitchen, not a single fuck up in the bunch. He settled onto a counter and read reports, moved around a few million dollars while the clatter of tools and his friends yelling at each other surrounded him. Gwaine regularly stopped by and kissed him smelling of sweat and sawdust and paint, thanked him for being there.

Arthur was being useful just because he was there, a strange feeling, but one he thought he could get used to.


End file.
